Explore Porto’s New Outdoor Digital Art Gallery and Stay at Palacete Severo, a New Hotel with its own Art Gallery
• Stay at the stylish new five-star hotel home to art gallery Perspective Galerie
• Discover the city in a unique way with a new digital public art circuit
• Visit one of Europe’s most exciting art galleries – Serralves – Museum of Contemporary Art
• Dine at ÉON at Palacete Severo, helmed by Michelin-starred chef Tiago Bonito
How do you showcase a city through art while also encouraging walking? Portugal’s second largest city Porto has unveiled a new digital public art circuit – Galeria Digital do Porto.
Galeria Digital do Porto presents itself as an open-air, digital public art gallery aimed at offering visitors new points of view of the city through digital art projects that can only be accessed by visiting a specific place. Local artists were invited to showcase the city, away from the obvious tourist points and so far 13 artistic projects are available to discover. The initiative is curated by João Laia and Patrícia Coelho with the objective of exploring the intersection between art, technology and territory in a city easily discovered on foot. The curators note “the projects are situated between the physical place of the city and the virtual dimension, this initiative explores how digital art can suggest new ways of thinking about and interacting with public space”. https://galeriadigital.porto.pt/en
With art in mind Palacete Severo, a new hotel in the heart of Porto’s creative neighbourhood Cedofeita, is the place to stay at. The hotel certainly exudes art, history and discreet luxury. Surrounded by ancient camellia trees, the yellow-walled “palacete” (or small palace) was built by the celebrated Portuguese architect, Ricardo Severo, in 1904 for his Brazilian wife Francisca Santos Dumont.
Art is everywhere at Palacete Severo. Géraldine Banier who owns a contemporary art gallery in Paris (Perspective Galerie), curates the hotel as a living gallery inviting Portuguese and international artists to showcase at the Porto gallery – Perspective Galerie located inside the hotel. Exhibitions are hosted around the building and available to purchase, and art works are hung in every room, as a homage to Ricardo Severo’s love of art.
During a stay head out and explore the city. How does the Galeria Digital do Porto gallery work? Access to the works at Galeria Digital do Porto is geo-localised. Each work is associated with specific GPS coordinates in Porto. When you arrive at the location indicated, the work becomes accessible via your mobile device using a QR code. Visitors can of course spend longer discovering the location where the art is showcased. After all that walking head back to your own art gallery at Palacete Severo.
It’s not often you get to stay in an architect’s dream house. This feels more like a private residence than a hotel. And the couple’s love story is at the heart of the building. Key architectural elements have been preserved with original stained glass, black and white mosaic floors, hand-painted tiles (azulejos) and stuccoed ceilings.
The owners, brought in the Portuguese interior designer Paulo Lobo to work with them to skilfully reimagine the space as a hotel, seamlessly incorporating a new building across the garden. Contemporary touches include velvet banquettes, custom lighting, and a fresh interior palette.
There are just 20 bedrooms and suites. Eleven are in the original 20th-century building, with oak floors, thick wicker bedheads and stuccoed ceilings; while nine are in the new-build extension in the grounds. They all have their own character, from the former maid’s room, half way up the stairs under a sloping ceiling, to the original enclosed wooden balcony room and a garden suite apartment with separate sitting room area with a varanda overlooking the garden.
The decor is luxurious but understated. Modern comforts includes high-thread-count linens and all marble-clad bathrooms come with showers and are stocked with amenities from Portuguese brand 8950, a fragrant blend of fig, almond and fennel.
There are two on-site restaurants. At ÉON, the wood-panelled fine dining restaurant, Michelin-starred chef Tiago Bonito reimagines Portuguese dishes. The tasting menu takes diners on a journey of seasonal Portuguese discoveries. The menu’s dishes include ‘CAVIAR & ONION – Squid, Miso, Browned Butter’, ‘BLUEFIN TUNA – Oyster, Cucumber & Apple, Wasabi’, BREAD & BRIOCHE – Azores Butter and Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil’, ‘HOOK-CAUGHT HAKE – Parsley, Mushrooms, Pil-Pil’, ‘SCARLET PRAWN (ALGARVE) – Harissa, Pumpkin, Bísaro Pork’, ‘GOAT’S CHEESE – Pomegranate, Spices, Walnut. And dessert ‘CHILDHOOD MEMORIES – Popcorn, Caramel, Cotton Candy.
The more informal, Bistrô Severo, in the lovely internal tiled courtyard, offers lunch daily with a weekly changing menu featuring local produce with the choice of two starters, three mains and two desserts and dinner menu served daily with a wider A La Carte offering.
The hotel bar offers delicious cocktails including a tonka bean sour, and there is a stunning library on the first floor ideal to hide away in with a book or magazine, a small gym and an events room.
The wonderfully relaxing Spa Severo has a Turkish bath and Himalayan salt room. Treatments use French, plant-based Olivier Claire products (the first Portuguese hotel to offer the brand). Try the signature cellular-renewing facial, which includes a relaxing massage. Couples will also enjoy a treatment room designed for two.
In the hotel garden, you’ll find water fountains, formal and informal planting, and unique pieces of art, as well as the heated outdoor pool set with sleek sun loungers.
The house was Ricardo Severo’s first work in Porto, displaying different stylistic elements from all over Portugal, which is why it’s often called a “museum of details”.
Palacete Severo is a destination, rather than merely a base. Located on a quiet residential street, now named after Severo himself (Rua de Ricardo Severo), it is in the heart of Porto’s creative neighbourhood Cedofeita, where most of Porto’s art galleries are located, as well as independent boutiques, shops, restaurants and cafés.
Because it’s so central you can also walk to many of Porto’s famous cultural attractions including the Serralves – Museum of Contemporary Art, the Casa da Música, Dom Luís I Bridge, the Bolsa Palace and the Livraria Lello Book Store. Other art focused places to visit include the Casa São Roque and Culturgest. The airport and main railway station are both a 20-minute drive away – as is the medieval waterfront of the Douro River and Avenida dos Aliados, with its designer shops. Beaches are also located close by in Foz, Porto’s coastal neighbourhood facing the Atlantic Ocean.
This new boutique hotel is no show-off — it seduces slowly, working its magic. A tribute to an enduring love affair – and a modern vibrant city – Palacete Severo is a very special addition to the Porto landscape.
palacetesevero.com
Rua de Ricardo Severo 21, 4050-460 Porto, Portugal
B&B is priced from €300.00 per room per night
Getting there: From the UK Porto airport is served by five airlines: BA, TAP Air Portugal, easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2, from around 11 airports nationwide including London Gatwick, London Luton, London Stansted, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Belfast. From Ireland Porto airport is served by Ryanair. Porto is three hours by train from Lisbon.
From the airport: Taxi, Uber, Bolt or Metro (Line E Purple) to Carolina Michaelis directly then a 10 minute walk. The Porto Metro runs from around 06.30am to 00.40am.
